From November 22, each of the four forces in Wales will have its own Police and Crime Commissioner (PCC), a publicly elected individual who will set budgets and precepts for their local force, decide on policing priorities for their area and draw up a yearly police and crime plan, which chief constables will follow.

On top of that, they will be able to dole out grant money to community safety groups and will have a scrutinising function: the chief constable will directly report to them and the PCCs will have the power to hire and fire them.

According to the Home Office, PCCs will not be there to tell police officers how to do their job – they will decide priorities, but operational independence will still remain with the force itself.

PCCs will also be expected to regularly engage with the public so they can decide what the public wants and act on it.

When they begin work on November 22, PCCs will be paid broadly the same salary as their local chief constable.

How is this different to the current set-up?

At the moment, each police force in England and Wales is controlled and monitored by its own police authority.

These independent bodies set the force’s budget, oversee its work and determine local policing priorities.

But the people who make them up are not publicly elected to the authority. They are a mixture of councillors and independent members who are appointed by the authority.

The Government believes police authorities have not been visible enough to the public, and that PCCs will provide a more direct link between the police and the public.

The main difference is that PCCs will now be one person, rather than a body made up of 19 people. This one person will still be supported by an office of staff and will be scrutinised in turn by a Police and Crime Panel.

Hang on, a Police and Crime Panel?

That’s the other change. Police and Crime panels will be made up of a core of 10 locally elected councillors, with at least one from each of the local authorities in the force area.

Those elected officials will then be supplemented by more elected and independent people, taking the total number up to 20. In Wales, Police and Crime Panels will be free-standing public bodies, rather than local authority committees, but local authorities are still playing an active role in setting up the panels and hosting them.

Broadly, the panels’ role will be to examine the actions and decisions of each PCC – just like a government scrutiny committee.

This includes making sure the PCC has achieved the aims set out in their police and crime plan and annual report, that they have taken the priorities of community safety partners into account and that they have properly consulted with the public throughout.

Special powers they have include public questioning of the PCC, the ability to veto the level of the precept if they do not agree with it, and to veto chief constable appointments made by the PCC.

They won’t be able to veto budgets or the decision to fire a chief constable, but they will be able to ask the HM Inspectorate of Constabulary (HMIC) for a professional view if the PCC is planning to dismiss the chief constable – something unlikely to happen very often.

They will also have the power to make the PCC or any of their staff attend meetings and will deal with complaints against the PCC.

How much of the work of PCCs and Police and Crime Panels will be seen by the public?

The PCC’s police and crime plan, which sets out policing priorities for the year ahead, and their annual report, which evaluates progress, will be publicly available documents.

The Police and Crime Panel will also publish its reports and recommendations in relation to those documents and will hold yearly public meetings to discuss the annual report and question the PCC.

Currently, police authorities hold a swathe of meetings every year covering audit and scrutiny, equalities, performance monitoring, protective services and community engagement, to name but a few.

Most of these meetings are open to the public, but it is very rare for anyone to go along to them.

It has been argued that the new system will be simpler and the fact the PCC is publicly elected will stoke public interest in decisions around their police force.

When was this all decided?

The idea of introducing directly-elected Police and Crime Commissioners was a main pillar of the Conservative 2010 election manifesto.

It came into being with the Police Reform and Social Responsibility Bill, which became an Act last year.

The Act was opposed by Labour and by police authorities, who said it risked politicising the police. However, Labour has now fielded candidates in all of the forces on a sort of “if you can’t beat them, join them” philosophy.

Why have I heard so little about it?

This has been an ongoing criticism of the plans.

When they first suggested them in their manifesto, the Conservatives talked a lot about attracting independent candidates to the role, but after the Act was passed it emerged candidates would have to come up with a £5,000 deposit, which put many prospective candidates off.

Subject to more damning criticism is the decision to not allow every candidate a free mailshot, something traditionally offered to candidates in local and parliamentary elections. But part of the Conservative party’s promise when introducing PCCs was to make sure the total running costs of the new system did not exceed that of police authorities. This meant cutbacks had to be made on the election, which is already estimated to be setting the taxpayer back £75m.

Instead, the Home Office has set up a website where voters can find out about PCCs and a phone number they can call to order a leaflet with details of all their local candidates.

But critics say it would have been possible to include information about candidates on leaflets the Electoral Commission is set to send out to every household, detailing how the voting will work.

With days to go until the elections, the Home Office launched an advertising campaign, with adverts in newspapers and at bus stops “up and down the country” and a “multi media campaign” on TV and radio.

They also introduced a film, available on YouTube [http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=qT-ywCilmdA&feature=relmfu] which features CCTV videos of hoodies kicking cans and confrontations on buses accompanied by the voiceover: “On the 15th of November, criminals will hope you do nothing”.

But many candidates will have been left asking, is this enough?

Won’t the PCC be just another politician?

Again, this was a criticism directed at the Conservatives when they first came up with the idea. Independent candidates have been claiming candidates from political parties will have to answer first to their political party before the public.

This is an especially strong argument in Wales, where it is feared political candidates could end up answering to their Westminster colleagues. Political candidates, like Labour’s Alun Michael in South Wales, have countered that their political links will give them a voice in London and Cardiff Bay that they might otherwise not have and insist they will not be influenced by party politics.

Once we vote in a PCC, how long do we have them for?

The first term is set to last three-and-a-half years, with the next set of elections likely to happen in May 2016. After that, terms will last four years and – significantly – there are no caps on terms served.